City Council hears need to update fleet of older fire trucks, police cars

EVANSVILLE - Evansville's top public safety officials told City Council members Thursday about the high maintenance costs and dangers that come from having too many outdated vehicles.

Nine of the Evansville Fire Department's 23 trucks are at least 17 years old, Chief Mike Connelly said, while Police Chief Billy Bolin said 66 percent of his department's vehicles have more than 75,000 miles and 19 percent have at least 125,000 miles.

"The state of our vehicles is horrible," Bolin told the Council. " ... These are not your family station wagons or minivans. These cars are driven hard."

The Council also took note of one of its own members' thoughts on the subject.

"I know how it feels to get in one of those old trucks in an ice storm," said Councilman Al Lindsey, a Democrat who represents the Sixth Ward and has also been a city firefighter for 26 years. "You're always on edge."

The city's 2013 draft budget includes some upgrades for both departments.

For firefighters, the spending plan has about $900,000 to replace Quint 8, a 1999 truck with a history of maintenance woes. Department officials said in March that Quint 8 has been out of service for about a fourth of its existence, and its lifetime repair bill had reached six figures.

The police department's 2013 budget includes funding for 14 more vehicles.

But some Council members speaking at Thursday's budget hearing said the city should accelerate purchasing of new public safety vehicles through leasing opportunities.

"We need to be aggressive in replacing these trucks for the good of the city and of the firefight

ers," said Lindsey.

Missy Mosby, a Democrat elected from the Second Ward, agreed. "They need to feel safe when they go out on a call."

Bolin and Connelly both said they would be open to a more aggressive leasing plan.

Connelly said his upbringing taught him to "save your money before you buy something," and leasing is a "long-term commitment to a capital expenditure. But if they're up for it, I'm up for it, too."

Bolin said the police department is to acquire 30 new vehicles this year in a lease effort, and next year, leasing could bring the department more than the 14 new vehicles currently budgeted.

"We need them," he said. "We had to transfer funds internally for another $100,000 to help get us through the year on vehicle repairs. We've got officers that are losing cars because we don't have the money to repair them. If something's gone down that $3,000 to $4,000, and if it's a vehicle that has 120,000 miles, we're just saying we're not going to sink the money into it. We're going to retire it."

Bolin said about 90 officers do not have take-home cars, and he told the City Council about the benefits of a large take-home fleet.

"But right now, we're just saying we want to replace vehicles that need to be replaced. So even if we do the lease this year and next year, we'll still have officers that won't have a take-home car ... This is going to be about replacing ones that need to be retired."

Connelly said that besides replacing Quint 8, the 2013 budget plan enables the fire department to make needed repairs to some of its stations.

"We need to continue to improve our fire stations," Connelly said. "The County Option Income Tax refund money is going make opportunities for us to improve living conditions for our firefighters."

The City Council's final 2013 budget hearing will be at 4 p.m. today in Room 301 of the Civic Center.